A small crowd gathered at Ponderosa Elementary School Tuesday night to hash out plans for a proposed 12-acre park just up the road. What they got was an introduction to the long process of building a park.

While some residents showed up with ideas in hand, Paradise Recreation and Park District Manger Mike Trinca said the first meeting would be a sort of orientation. The next few meetings will be reserved for brainstorming, he said.

In the meantime, Trinca said the project will have an impact on the noise, traffic and visitors to the area.

"We know it's going to affect our community," he said. "We believe it is going to affect you positively," he said.

He said the brainstorming meetings will help neighbors address those issues before the park is built. In effect, he said the neighbors are the designers, builders and developers of the park.

The district bought the 12-acre parcel in 2009 from the Noble family for the purpose of building a park.

Brainstorming will lead to a lot of ideas, even though some may not be right for the final design, he said, adding that no idea is a bad idea.

"It's a time when you really find out what being a community is about," Trinca said, with displays of other district parks in the background.

After weighing the ideas against affordability and practicality, the remaining ideas are put into the park's master plan.The master plan will help the district secure state funding for the park, he said.

"Finances will have an effect on our direction as well as some designs for the property," he said, noting that the basic infrastructure of the park — curbs, gutters, sidewalks and restrooms — will be the most expensive part of the project.

"It'll cost you a million bucks, no question," he said.

Depending on the economy, Trinca said it could take 10 to 20 years before the project is completed. The economy will have to turn around before the district can build any new park, he said.

"We couldn't start this project tomorrow if our lives depended on it," he said. "We don't have the money in our budget to hire another person to take care of the park, let alone build it."

As an aside, he said the district held onto Bille Park's 55 acres for 50 years before that park was built.

Furthermore, the $2.5 million Lakeridge Park in Magalia is the district's priority, he said.

"We have 11,000 people up there, and no park," he said, adding the district only has $60,000 in their coffers for the project.

He added that state schemes like the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund, which shifts money from local government to schools, resulted in a $600,000 loss to PRPD's $1.8 million in tax revenue.

To illustrate, Trinca said the Ridge has five times the population and several more parks to maintain, and the district is doing it with the same number of staff that was there when he was hired in 1972.

Trinca also addressed concerns about vagrants, vandals, drunks, drug users and other troublemakers.

He said there used to be similar problems at Bille Park, but motion-activated lightning, vigilant neighbors and strong communication with the police have curbed much of the after-hours trespassing and trouble.

If necessary, he said 24-hour security may be an option, noting that it saved the district troubles at the ice rink a few times. There was also talk of preserving the migration trail, possibly installing state-of-the-art artificial playing surfaces, walking trails and the like. He said those things can be hashed out in subsequent meetings.

Trinca was questioned about obtaining a private philanthropic grant, but Trinca said public agencies generally don't have access to private grant money, which is reserved for more needy organizations.

Regarding preserving the apple trees on the property, Trinca said those trees have gone bad and he would like to replace them. Trinca said Jim Noble still has a couple original Noble Orchard trees and would like to get some grafts from the original trees to plant new ones.

"I can plant a new apple tree and in five years have a better tree than what we have out there," he said.

The biggest obstacles right now are the economy and the lack of water, he said.

"Right now, if the drought continues, we will be letting parks die. Turf will disappear," he said. The district will try to keep the ball fields and the main plants green, but the district will have to conserve water just like everyone else.

Still, he said it was important to start on the planning now.

"If we have this master plan and the money becomes available, I've learned if you're not sitting there with your tag, you ain't getting nothing," he said. He said the district will not have time to get their paperwork ready if they wait until the money becomes available. "When that public money becomes available, you better be on the track running prior to the announcement."

Trinca encouraged the crowd to spread the word to their neighbors and to attend the Feb. 18 brainstorming session, where ideas will be taken and documented.